Penn State Lightning Cluster Mapper 2

The Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science has been given a single-station lightning locating system, the LIghtning Cluster Mapper (LCM-2), that was designed, built, and set up by Hampton W. Shirer, Professor Emeritus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. This design is based on the published gated, wide-band direction finding method of Philip Krider, Carl Noggle, and Martin Uman. The antenna for the LCM-2 system, shown here, is installed on the top of Walker Building. The estimated location of lightning activity within approximately 1100 km is displayed on the LCM-2 web site, which also provides a description of the system. The estimated locations are obtained via statistical analysis of the received electromagnetic signals; calibration and improvement of the method for doing so are topics of ongoing research.